Packing the GIS Business Case for the Board Room

By
Ross Smith and Neil Saward

GIS technology is not new and the opportunities for
leveraging it for
business benefit are typically well understood, at least by GIS
professionals and vendors.Despite this, we have found that one of the
main impediments to effective GIS implementation - and the realization
of the benefits expected - is the lack of executive commitment
necessary for the multi-year, multi-million dollar investment.

Why is it so difficult to sell the benefits that GIS can bring to
executives? Have you found that no matter how much you evangelize about
the operational improvements that a GIS capability would bring, you are
constantly aware that the GIS initiative is between the cross-hairs
when budget cuts are made?

How best can you ensure that your executives unilaterally buy-in to GIS
and see cutting GIS funding as a last resort? The answer is simpler
than you think: Packaging.The means by which you package your
arguments, logic and supporting evidence and the language you use to
articulate them will have a direct impact on how successful you are at
making your case and winning them over.

The One Page Strategy
The one page strategy is a simple but effective mechanism, developed in
four steps, that helps GIS professionals package and articulate the
benefits of GIS to their peers and executives effectively, while
building consensus, promoting communication with the business and
targeting under and over-investments in key areas.The four steps are:

Focus on the benefits that matter to the
executives

Define and measure success

Use a best-practice Capability Maturity Model
(CMM) to identify improvements

Develop a transformational roadmap.

This process is a means to build a fact-based,
business-led
strategy, business case and implementation roadmap - all in one - and
it provides a vehicle to secure budget and executive support
year-on-year.

Source:
PA Consulting.(Click
for larger image)

Step 1 - Focus on the benefits that matter to the executives
The key to successfully communicating with executives is to speak their
language - and to know
what matters to them.You will quickly lose
their interest if you use terms like geo-spatial, polygon, data model
and integration.

And you may capture their interest but not necessarily their support
even if you talk about GIS in relation to customers, shareholders and
productivity.However, executives will buy-in if you can directly
attribute the GIS to their objectives and help them to meet their
targets; only then will you fully win their support.

How do you know what their objectives and targets are? Ask them.Often
there are three to five key performance indicators against which they
are being measured -
these are the things that keep them up at night.

Step 2 - Define and measure success
It has been said that if you're not keeping score, then you're only
practicing.It is important for your business case to identify what
metrics your proposed GIS-related initiatives will positively impact "
e.g.decreased operational expenditure, decreased customer churn,
increased market penetration etc.

Therein often lies the problem - determining the true ROI for
GIS-related initiatives has been traditionally difficult - intangible
benefits or wild assumptions have dominated business cases, often with
little ability to tie beneficial value achieved directly back to the
GIS.

The one page approach mitigates this by using a CMM approach to examine
the existing Business Design in order to expose key strengths and
weaknesses.
Step 3 - Use a Best Practice CMM to identify improvements
The CMM is a collection of sector-specific measures that enables
stakeholders to assess how closely aligned a GIS initiative is to
industry Best Practice.Over or under investment in any of these key
measures will impact the organization's ability to succeed.

By drawing out these weaknesses, opportunities for improvement can be
identified and articulated.More importantly, the CMM provides a
mechanism to engage with, and educate colleagues, so that findings
represent a collective view.

By using the CMM, it is possible to identify the focus of strategic and
tactical activities in light of the overarching business goals and
targets.It helps determine where the business is today and what
''tomorrow'' should look like to allow the business goals to be met.

Step 4 - Develop a Transformational Roadmap
Once a capability gap has been exposed using the CMM, the next step is
to determine what practically needs to be done to move from "today," to
the vision of "tomorrow." The one page strategy links all the elements - the business objectives, weaknesses
and planned initiatives -
together with via a Strategic Grid.Using the Strategic Grid it is
possible to illustrate how a particular initiative will contribute to
the business achieving its revenue, customer service and cost reduction
goals and targets.And it is no coincidence that the executives will
have many of these targets.

Successfully implementing a GIS is no trivial task and executive
commitment is essential.To secure executive buy-in and ensure funding,
sell the correctly packaged GIS and its related initiatives.